Antimicrobial and antioxidative activities ofTagetes minuta, Lippia javanicaandFoeniculum vulgareessential oils from the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

There is a need for natural preservatives in cosmetic, food and pharmaceutcal industries especially at a time when the safety and acceptability of currently used synthetic antimicrobial agents and antioxidants are being re-visited. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial and antioxidative activities of the essential oils of Tagetes minuta, Lippia javanica and Foeniculum vulgare wildly growing or grown in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The antibacterial and antifungal activities of the oils were determined using the agar diffusion and dilution assays while the antioxidative activity was evaluated using the ß-carotene diffusion assay. All the essential oils tested exhibited strong antimicrobial activities against the common test organisms. However, the antimicrobial activity differed and depended on the type and concentration of the oil. Foeniculum vulgare and T. minuta oils also displayed remarkable antioxidative activities in addition to their antimicrobial activity. The latter oils could be considered as potential sources of raw materials for the development of natural antimicrobial and antioxidative agents.